Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
One of the first things I noticed about your forum is that it is fixed-width. That really is annoying for people like me who have larger monitors. Staring at HUGE black bars on both sides of the page is not enjoyable at all. It also makes your forum look much too dark. Another thing that bugs me are your buttons have a really bad font. I know you’re trying to look Runescape-ish, but they don’t go well at all with the forum. The final thing that bothers me is that your actual skin looks like any other myBB skin. If you’re going to have fancy custom navigation buttons, why not have custom forum icons? That would make things look better.
However, there were some positive points to your skin. First off, that scroll effect you have on announcements is really neat. That’s something I haven’t seen done before. Very nice. Second, your forum has easy-to-read posts. The color and font size are appropriate. Third, I like how your posts aren’t loaded down with useless info on the side. Posts aren’t unnecessarily large thanks to that. Also, it’s nice you have a Favicon.
(Scored 16/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I really like how your forum integrates with your site. The design is consistent. There are always ways back to what you want to get to. I did not see any orphaned pages on your site. I want to focus this mainly on the forum, though. Your forum layout is nice. It is short, which is good. (Nobody likes boards with tons of forums!) Also, you only have two off-topic forums, which is a very good thing. Your little “The Varrock Library” category looks quite bare. Maybe you could add a forum for discussing guides in the collection? That way they could be improved, and I think members would feel more involved that way, which is good for the community.
(Scored 19/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
You’ve been open roughly about 5 months or so. 3K posts is OK, not horrendous, nor great. Usually a flow of 1K/month is optimal, but I see you understand you need it to be ramped up. One thing that’s good about your stats is that you have some quality guides written and posted. That should attract players of the game. One category lacks any, though. Maybe offering more incentives could help that? Your “Runescape Help Center” forum is quite inactive, but that’s not really a forum you should get rid of. Every other forum was fine in activity it appeared.
(Scored 16/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
http://www.runeknow.com/info/system/
Golly, this page hurts my head. First off, in the chart, they are referred to as “Junior Moderators”, but in the text explaining it below, they are referred to as “Junior Members.” Second, the “Global Moderator” position you describe is absent from that diagram. Also, in the “Site Manager” section, you claim, “ You can consider the site staff to be the global moderators of our website.” This is despite a whole global moderator position is described right above. Your entire staff system is unnecessarily confusing. You’re a forum with a guide element, there is no need for “teams” and “site managers” and “leaders.” Honestly, your entire structure could be composed of Admins, Moderators, and Guide Staff. Your forum is pretty small in terms of statistics, so filling all of those positions you describe would make you WAY overstaffed, and it would not be beneficial. Simplify your structure, and don’t overstaff.
(Scored 13/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I did notice a few things.
“For any general discussion pertaining to RuneScape that doesn't fit in any below categories.” should be, “For any general discussion pertaining to RuneScape that doesn't fit in any of the below categories.” That was the only one like that. A lot of your other other descriptions are incomplete sentences. “Forum news and announcements. “, for example, lacks a verb. There are quite a few like that.
(Scored 17/20)
Total Score – 85 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: Your forum offered some quality info.
What was most liked about the website/forums: Guides, layout.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Skin, staff.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Sorry, I don’t play RuneScape.
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